


his greatest ally

by paperlesscrown



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017) RPF
Genre: F/M, FFA premiere, Inspired by Real Events, Sprousehart, riverdale rpf - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-16 16:31:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18098000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperlesscrown/pseuds/paperlesscrown
Summary: Some moments before a film premiere.





	his greatest ally

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: As always, while this is based on a number of real-life events and people, it is purely speculative and fictional, and was not intended to upset or offend.

The script arrived in a plain, thick manila envelope, addressed to Cole, which he added to a growing pile of unread mail on the kitchen table. He’d anticipated it for a while - truthfully, they _both_ had - and Lili watched him every morning as he gave it a quick, furtive glance, before looking away and grabbing the car keys.

“You’re not gonna open that?” she finally asked, after the third morning of the same.

“In time,” he said, a little too nonchalantly.

She hesitated on her next question, but she had to know: “When?”

He shrugged and made no other reply. They would eat their dinner later that night with the envelope close by, boxes of Chinese food obscuring it from view, keeping it out of sight and out of mind. 

Still, in the quiet of their pre-bed routine - him reading Brian Fagan, her scrolling idly through Instagram - she remembered it, visualising it untouched on the table. She wondered what kept him away from it.

After a few more days of routinely ignoring the script, Lili picked it up while Cole lingered in the shower. Its hefty weight reminded her of one particular script - the first one sent to her of _Riverdale’_ s pilot episode.

She recalled, suddenly, what a big deal booking the show was - not just for her, but also for _him_. It was what drew them together in those early, heady days of testing the waters with each other, when they’d talk late into the night, letting their legs dangle from the balcony of her apartment as he told her about how new and strange all this was for him, fresh from what he thought would be a permanent archaeology gig, adrift from his brother for the very first time.

And then it made sense, his strange avoidance. A script wasn’t just a script: it was a doorway to another reality, a whole new life. It was a big deal to pick it up and read it, to suddenly walk through a passage of opportunity. _Maybe_ _it’s just too much to walk through that right now._

_Or,_ another thought countered, _maybe it’s too much to walk through alone._

“Hey,” she said later that night, as he stacked up the dishwasher, “would you... maybe want to read the script together?”

It was a small offer, deliberately gentle, probing but sweet. She heard the steady clink of the dishes pause, and she couldn’t see him, but she _felt_ him smile, felt his silent sigh of relief in her own bones.

“Yeah,” he replied, his head bobbing above the counter. “Tonight?”

“Sure. We can do tonight.” 

In bed later on, her tears would dampen his forearm as he closed the script, both of them reading it together by the amber glow of lamplight while her head rested in the nook of his elbow.

“Holy shit, Cole,” she said. “Holy _shit._ ”

“So you think I should do it?” he asked.

But she heard something else, something more pressing beneath that question - apprehension, worry and doubt. 

_Can I do this?_

Lili turned around to face him. It startled her to see Cole - her beautiful, charming, confident Cole - suddenly uncertain. She reached towards him in the shadows, and drew in his face until it was flush against hers.

“Yes,” she whispered back, fierce and reassuring. “This is _you_. Cole, you have to do this.”

* * *

There was a spot on Cole’s back that Lili liked to call her own - the sudden dip between his shoulders, where her head seemed to fit perfectly. She rested her cheek against it, feeling the thrum of his voice echoing through his lungs as he spoke on the phone - an early morning rasp that she happened to find very sexy.

“Yeah man, definitely,” he said to the unseen voice on the other line. “The cafe on the corner? I know that one. I’ll see you there.”

He hung up, before turning around to face her. She whined at the loss of his warmth and folded herself into his arms.

“Sleep?” he asked, pulling her close.

“Not until you brief me,” she replied, eyes still closed.

He laughed. “ _‘Brief’_ you? Jesus, you manage me now?”

“Stop. It’s too early for me to be clever with that line,” she replied, though she made a mental note to use it later on. “Come on. Tell me what Justin said.”

“Well, we’re meeting this weekend,” he said. “But that’s it. Just a meeting. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Oh, but my hopes are _very_ up,” Lili replied sleepily.

“Mm, is that so?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Why?”

“Just… I feel it. That part is yours.”

Cole was quiet, his arm tightening around her. “You sound so sure.”

She dozed off soon after in his embrace, but not before she mumbled to herself, a little quiet but still loud enough for him to hear: _I’m always sure when it comes to you._

* * *

She cried when he officially signed on. She texted everyone she knew, or at least everyone that was allowed to find out. She refused to take no for an answer when he resisted calling his brother at first, conscious of the time difference between Beijing and Vancouver.

“Come _on_. He’ll wake up for this.” She then remembered that she was talking to one of the _Sprouse boys,_  and that mischief would win over logic here. “Think of how _pissed_ he’ll be.”

That did the trick. A groggy, barely coherent Dylan answered their FaceTime call, and after he swore loudly at Cole and sincerely expressed his excitement at the news, he turned on Lili. “It’s fucking 3 am here, by the way. This reeks of your doing, Pauline,” he said, using her middle name - a term of endearment he’d come to call his brother’s girlfriend. “You better watch your back." 

She scoffed. “Your pranks are getting lame, dude."

“Or, more likely, my brother’s just going soft and can’t deliver as usual,” he replied, rubbing his eyes. “Alright, shitheads. I have a huge scene to film in the morning. Gotta go.”

Dylan would text her after they hung up, short and simple: _He’ll need you, you know._

She smiled. She loved how the two of them still looked after each other, even now, even half a world away. She knew that that was no small thing for Dylan. The boys were usually each other’s rear guard, fiercely protective of one another. But this time, he was trusting _her_ with the task, knowing that she was up to it. 

She replied, just as simply: _He’s got me. Forever. He knows that._

* * *

The day of his flight drew closer. Cole, always prepared, already had his largest suitcase out and open in the living room, slowly accumulating a pile of clean clothes, camera equipment and books to take to New Orleans. Lili watched his progress with a strange mix of pride and dread. She couldn’t be more excited, not even if the movie was her own... but of course…

“You’ve got a charger, right?” Cole asked, interrupting her thoughts. She’d recently lost hers, and was constantly borrowing his.

“Oh, uh... I’ll just borrow Cami’s.”

“Babe. Come on. What if I need to call you tomorrow?” He sighed before pulling out his phone. “I’m ordering one off Amazon right now and having it delivered to yours. What’s your LA address again?”

“Um, I’ll send it to you,” she replied, swiftly typing it out in a message. “There. You should get it.”

“Sweet.” He surveyed the mess before him, then paused as his eye caught on something tucked haphazardly inside his luggage - something unfamiliar. Lili winced, realising too late that the distinct texture of the brown wrapping paper was peeking out from underneath his neatly folded shirts.

He looked at her wordlessly, eyebrows raised.

She sighed and wrung her hands, annoyed at herself for not hiding it better. “Okay, yes, that _is_ from me, but you’re not allowed to open that until you’ve arrived at your hotel.”

He grinned, bending down to pick it up. The package was the size of a medium envelope, but thicker, and bound in loops of red paper twine. “What is it?" 

“It’s just a small gift, honestly, it’s really nothing.” 

“Well, it’s _something._ Or else you wouldn’t bother hiding it.” 

“Fine," she conceded. "Read the front.”

Cole turned it over, reading out loud what she had written. “‘35 days. 35 letters.’” He looked up at her. “‘One for each day we’re apart. You’ll be amazing, but I will miss you, my love.’”

Lili looked down at her shoes. At the carpet. At anything but him.

“Look, I _know_ ,” she began, “I know it’s kinda lame--”

But he has already on her, above her, everywhere as he pinned her to the floor, the package forgotten on the ground as he kissed her, his lips taking purchase of what his words could not.

Later, afterwards, she would finally allow herself to cry, to acknowledge how much she was going to miss him. He held her until she was half-crying, half-laughing, muttering that she didn’t mean to be such a sap, and he would tell her, over and over, that he loved her, he loved her, he loved her.

* * *

In his hotel in New Orleans, Lili peeked out into the teeming hubbub of Bourbon Street below, still rollicking at two in the morning. Having never been to the Big Easy before, she was fascinated by its colour and light, its history, its people and resilience.

But the city could wait. It would always be there. Perhaps one day, she and Cole would explore it, have their adventures as they always did.

For now, they were bound to this small space, tonight’s haven for their intimacy. His hand pulled her away from the window and into a new embrace, one that she was still learning - his body racked by his own preparation for the role, thinner and more gaunt, but still very much his, still her Cole.

“God, I miss how you smell,” he muttered into her shoulder, before kissing her bare skin.

She laughed as she ran her hands through his thick, beautiful hair - _that_ , at least, never changed. “Like sweat and pimple cream?” she asked.

“No,” he replied, looking down at her. “Like home.”

* * *

Lili lost count of how many times she’d watched the trailer.

_This has to be some form of masochism,_ she thought as she balled up another tissue in her fist. On her laptop screen, the video was paused on Cole, cannula in his nostrils, forehead pressed up against the door with Haley on the other side. It got to her, it always did. Every single time.

It wasn’t just that she was in awe of him, that she was thrilled that the world could finally see the sheer instinct and heart that he had as an actor.

It was that she’d never seen Cole look that _frail_ before, that weak - twenty-five pounds lighter and a shell of his physical self. She could never get used to seeing it, even knowing that it was just another role. And with each time she watched the trailer, it still broke a small piece inside of her. For him. For his faithfulness to the story he was representing.

That night, she climbed into bed after he fell asleep, and found again the spot on his back that she claimed as hers - the valley between his shoulders, still regaining its mass of muscle, where she could hear his lungs and his heartbeat and the resonant echo of his voice when he spoke.

_You’re here,_ she thought, as he breathed in and out in a steady rhythm. She closed her eyes and listened. Fell asleep to the sound of him living.

* * *

Lili smoothed her hands over her dress. She relished the soft give of the seafoam lace that criss-crossed the length of the fabric, taking care not to crease it as she sat in the car. Her driver was a short distance from the Fox Bruin Theatre, but she could already hear the growing din of photographers, fans and media that milled around the premiere. Although it never got easier to face such huge crowds, there was an extra pulse of bravery in her step tonight. 

The week had been exceptionally brutal. It felt a little strange to be doing _this_ \- to be celebrating, living, when both of them still carried a throbbing swell of pain around with them everywhere. But living a life marked by love and passion felt like the only option, and the only proper tribute. So here they were. Here she was.

She checked her reflection in a small compact mirror as she made her way towards the entrance. She knew that she was bound to cry tonight, that her makeup would be a mess at some point. She'd already shed tears in her hotel room, when she opened the door to a huge bouquet of roses sitting on the bed. It was  _his_ premiere, but somehow he'd found the time to send flowers to her, along with a note nestled among the buds. She slipped her hand into her purse and took it out again, reading it for the umpteenth time:

_All of this is more vivid, more coloured, more real with you by my side. -C._

A minder, armed with a clipboard and an earpiece, appeared next to her. "Miss Lili Reinhart?"

"Yes?" she replied. 

"Right this way, please," he said, indicating for her to join the queue for the photo wall. Slightly worried, she glanced around, wondering if anyone she knew was in line with her. Where was everyone? Where was  _Cole?_ She clasped his note tightly in her hand, trying to swallow her panic.

A few minutes passed with the line moving steadily forward, and she started to feel really nervous. Ahead of her, she could see that she was up soon. The minder turned towards her. "Two more, Miss Reinhart. Then it's your turn."

"Just me?" she asked, her voice small.

"Looks like it. It's a busy media line."

"Oh," she said, gulping. "Right."

"Actually, I'm with her," sounded a familiar voice. Lili whirled around, and she could have wept with relief. Cole's strong arms enveloped her, along with the smell of Dior Homme and the aftermath of several Marlboros. She buried her face into his neck.

"Late," she teased.

"Just in time," he replied, his hands skimming over the curve of her waist before tilting her chin up for a brief but simmering kiss - a promise suspended for later.

It could have been a beat, perhaps two, perhaps several; she always felt time stop in his arms. But before they knew it, they were being interrupted by a throat clearing, and ushered onto the carpet. "Alright, Cole and Lili, you're up," the minder said. "Right in front of the photo wall, please."

Normally, Lili would have felt bewildered and anxious - they'd barely had any time together, and now they were out here, right in front of what felt like a hundred lenses scrutinising their every move.

But as he held on tightly to her hand, as he looked her over appreciatively, she felt none of her usual skittishness. With him at her side, relief and joy and love emanating from his every pore, she felt free, buoyant. Even giddy.

Cole pulled her in by the waist, all motion suspended in that moment as he stood united with her - his greatest ally. It felt like a new space. They'd taken adventures everywhere, but Lili sensed something fresh and brilliant in the moment. He had called her his sanity, but nothing much made sense without him, either, and in the wild cacophony of her name and his being shouted out, it dawned on her that there were new days ahead of them, new worlds to conquer. With their names bound together - Lili and Cole - just as they were now _._

She chuckled. He looked at her puzzlingly.

Looking back, it was a strange thing to say, but it was also the only thing she could actually think of saying. To check that this was real. To check it was really him right there - her fellow dreamer, her bright star of the night, her own ally.

"Hi," she said softly, smiling. "Hi, baby."


End file.
